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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake.... That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Join the Salon.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

This week the topic is---Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

I pride myself on being a big reader of children's literature. A few years ago, I decided to try to read all the Newbery winners, and I easily did that in a year. Now I'm working on reading all the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. A bit daunting.

So I'm amending this list to make it the Top Ten Children's Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read. Here goes:

1. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre DumasI am working on this one right now. I can't believe I've never read it. I honestly was not all that familiar with the plot.

2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DefoeI love the idea behind this story. Who in their childhood hasn't dreamed of living on a deserted (or almost deserted) island?!

3. Pinocchio by Carlo CollodiI'll say it like the children often say in my library when I show them a book and ask if they have read it: "No, but I saw the movie!" And, eek, that grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.

4. Five Children and It by E. NesbitAs a little girl, I loved the Edgar Eager books I found in my public library. I devoured them and, when I saw that Edgar Eager attributed his brilliant writing to having read the E. Nesbit books, looked and looked for E. Nesbit around my small town. In vain, however. I must read this book.

5. The School at the Châlet by Elinor M. Brent-DyerI have a book friend who has long raved about these books. She even sent me two from the series. Have I read them? No, of course not.

6. Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
I can already hear the gasps of horror from those outside the US. No, I have not read Enid Blyton. There, I've said it. I can hardly believe it myself.

7. Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
Oh dear. Now I am in danger of having my children's librarian license revoked. Wait, though, I have read Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. But only that book in the seven book series. Nothing else.

8. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
Not having read this one will get me in deep trouble here among Texas children's librarians. Let me say that I desperately want to read it. And I promise to read it soon. Is that better?

9. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I'm afraid some are starting to throw tomatoes at me. "Children's librarian? Ha!" I can hear the snickers. But, people, let's look at the reality here. These are three separate books. And they are all BIG books. And, no, I haven't read any of them. No Jules Verne at all. Now I really feel bad. And not just because I'm covered in tomatoes.

10. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

Whatever you do, please do not tell my mom that I have not read these two series. My mom lived on Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a girl. I cannot believe it myself, but I have never read any of the books in the series. Eek.

Well, as you can see, I need to get busy and read some books. Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Here's a new idea: Let's choose someone to write a self-help book who knows what she is talking about. Someone who is not a researcher. Someone who is not a psychiatrist. Someone who is not even a therapist.

How about picking someone who is crazy?!

Yes, the author of The Pocket Therapist, Therese J. Borchard, claims she wrote this book by drawing on notes she took from "more than twelve years (i.e., six hundred hours) of therapy" as well as "get-ahold-of-yourself tips...learned in the psych ward."

There you go.

What kind of ideas does this book offer? Borchard provides 144 ideas for sanity, most as simple as breathing. In fact, the very first idea is breathing.

I liked this book, but, to really assess its efficacy, perhaps we need a crazy reader as well. Any takers?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Now I must decide: Shall I review this book by looking at it as Half Full or Half Empty? ;->

That's easy for me. I'm a Half Full kind of gal.

Half Full it is then.

You probably already know the story. Fourteen-year-old Hannah Salwen saw a homeless man and a shiny Mercedes and had an idea which she shared with her family. If her family would sell their enormous house, they could give half the money from the house to the poor and would make the world a better place. The family decided to do what Hannah had suggested and the money was given to villagers in Ghana. The book elaborates on this story, related by Hannah's dad, including interjections by Hannah herself. A lovely tale of sacrifice and thoughtfulness and caring.

My Half Empty self is screaming. Sorry. Just a minute.

Okay, I'm being forced by my Half Empty self to mention that the book falls into my personal genre, Books-That-Make-Better-Magazine-Articles-Than-They-Do-Books. Do you get the picture? It runs on, we'll say. Also, I'm being asked to share the fact that the Salwen house was a two million dollar house. We're not talking about a 3-2-2 in the suburbs. Is it really sacrifice to move down to a 3,000 square foot house?

Monday, August 16, 2010

I'd like to see a complete review of this book. Snippets of a review? That doesn't cut it. There's no doubt in my mind that I have positive things to say about it. I loved the way the author put me inside life in India today. Little conversations between people in India. Little trips to weddings. Little visits with people seeking a husband or a wife. I loved that.

But there are, also, for me, the negative things I must say about it. Most of the negative things can be summed up in one sentence: I think this book needed an editor. Here's the last paragraph of the first chapter, for example: "The business took off slowly, as expected. A few people became members and Mr. Ali advertised on their behalf. He forwarded the replies to his members but also kept their details, and as the weeks passed, his files steadily grew."

Do we need any of this? Whatever happened to show, not tell? Did Zama get an involved editor? Or were the publishers satisfied to throw together a pretty cover, a few comparisons to No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on the back, and the rough text?

I liked this book. Parts of it were exceptional. I just wish it had been edited into a much stronger book.

Here's a bit from parts I liked:

'"I don't need a full fruit. How much for half?" asked Mr. Ali.The man replied, "Eight rupees. Fresh, sir."Mr. Ali said, "Five rupees.""You are joking, sir. Just cut today on the slopes of Simhachalam. Came straight from the sacred town," said the vendor....The temple town of Simhachalam is home to a famous Hindu temple and Mr. Ali wondered if the man would have tried quite the same sales pitch if he had known that his customer was a Muslim.'

Sunday, August 15, 2010

That brings me up to 383 out of 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.

I'm in a Yahoo group where members are trying to read all 1001 children's books.

I'm still, slowly, reading away in Three Musketeers, one of the books on the list. It is quite daunting for me to read this book. I know very little about French history. The French culture of the time confuses me. (Apparently, it was the norm for men to have a wife and a mistress.) I know almost nothing about fighting or swordplay. Luckily for me, I'm attempting to read this on my iPad, with an in-house dictionary. Very helpful.

I was discussing my difficulties with the book after a library board meeting in my town. A fellow library board member and friend is author Bill Crider, known best for his grownup mysteries and westerns. Little did I know that Bill Crider has also written Muttketeer. Muttketeer is one of the Wishbone series, a dog version of The Three Musketeers. I promptly ordered a copy. It arrived in the mail yesterday.

Reading Muttketeer might enable me to follow TTM a little better. Chapter Two includes Wishbone's Official Dictionary of Fencing and French Words You May Not Know. Chapter Three provides some useful notes about the political situation. Here's a bit:

"In those days, the city was torn between two opposing leaders, and each one wanted all the power for himself. One was Cardinal Richelieu, a man of great importance in the Church. The other one was King Louis XIII, who was served most loyally by his personal guards---the highly trained and skilled musketeers. The musketeers, of course were the Good Guys, and D'Artagnan was going to join their ranks...."

I suppose reading Muttketeer along with The Three Musketeers is a bit like using Cliff's Notes. It digests the text into manageable chunks for children and people like me, unfamiliar with the essential story.

I must say that I feel guilty, as if I am doing something wrong by doing this. I feel like I'm somehow taking the easy way out or cheating somehow. Am I? Has anyone else found ways to ease the way through classics?

What is the Sunday Salon?

Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book.